The patent war continues between Apple and a majority of companies. If it isn’t with Apple wannabe Samsung, it is with HTC. But wait! There’s more. Apple is also involved in a patent lawsuit with Motorola. Last April, Motorola originally sued Apple regarding MobileMe due to data synchronization patent. The case has sure gotten ugly since then.
According to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, it was a “dreadful” day for Apple, during a hearing held Friday in the German city of Mannheim. It appears that a German court appears poised to rule against Apple and in favor of Motorola over alleged patent infringement related to iCloud. Honestly, I’m not surprised by the decision because Motorola is known to hold a lot of mobile related patents. Mueller said that at this point in the proceedings, the court does not appear to believe any of Apple’s arguments, and he’s confident that if the court made a ruling on Friday, it would have been in favor of Motorola Mobility. He also points out that the case can cost Apple $2.7 billion! Holy moly!
Fortunately for Apple, a final decision is not scheduled to be delivered until Feb. 3, 2012. But Mueller still feels that Motorola is “fairly likely” to win a patent injunction against Apple’s iCloud product.
According to AppleInsider, the lawsuit is related to European Patent 0847654 (B1), entitled “Multiple Pager Status Synchronization System and Method.” It is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 5,754,119, which carries the same name.
In addition, the judge raised the possibility of Apple developing a workaround for iCloud to avoid infringing Motorola’s patent, but Apple’s lawyers pressed their case that the risk to Apple’s business was still severe.
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